By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – A tame election has bred tame political spending in city races this year.

Only five candidates for city office filed pre-election spending reports for Tuesday’s vote. That entire group has raised and spent a total of $6,100 – less than Mayor Lionel C. Guay raised in his first campaign for mayor in 2003.

The reports were due to be filed at the city clerk’s office on Wednesday and reflect campaign donations and spending through Oct. 27.

Voters are scheduled to go to the polls on Tuesday, and a final report is due to the city 42 days after the election.

Mayor Guay and Ward 5 candidate Paul Samson lead the spending currently. Guay has taken in $2,909 in donations – most of it his own money and money from family and friends – and spent $2,672. The bulk of that was spent on campaign advertising, including $352 for radio commercials and $2,189 for print advertisements. Another $131 was spent to print campaign literature and postage.

Guay’s opponent Charles Soule has spent $419.90 of his own money on print advertisements, campaign literature and on a laser printer-copier. Soule also spent $48.08 on gasoline.

Ward 5 candidate Samson spent $1,384.05 on advertising and campaign literature. That was paid with his own money and donations from family and friends.

His opponent Larry Poulin spent $20 on his campaign, purchasing a list of Ward 5 voters from the city clerk’s office.

In Ward 1, Stavros Mendros spent $1,249 for signs. Mendros has raised $729 in donations and paid half of what he owes for the signs and agreed to pay the other half. Mendros is unopposed in his race.

Councilor Ron Jean, the unopposed incumbent candidate for Ward 4, has spent $326.54 of his own money for campaign literature. In Ward 3, both candidates Lillian O’Brien and Marc Mason had listed no spending for the campaign. None of the councilors, all of them unopposed, reported any spending or donations.

None of the candidates for School Committee are opposed in their races and most of them reported no donations or spending. Only Ward 2’s Laurier Lachance spent $168 for newspaper advertisements.